Bad Appeals to Authority

Under common mistakes in evaluating premises the topic of appeals to authority is discussed specifically bad appeals to authority, which is defined by the textbook as its usually a mistake to accept a claim as true solely because a lot of other people believe it. I think this is an important part of evaluating premises because you need to be aware of whom you believe and why you believe them. It is important to ask yourself does this person have authority on this subject, or are they just reporting information they have heard somewhere else. For example, let’s take this blog post and myself, do I have authority on common mistakes in evaluating premises or am I just relaying information that I have heard somewhere else? Obviously I am not an expert. I am only a student with a textbook. The true expert would be the person who wrote this textbook, so it would be wise to take what information I am writing into consideration and then double check it with what the textbook has to say on bad appeals to authority.